Andor Achieves The Worst Possible Record For A Star Wars Show
Andor is the Star Wars show that looks to have the least amount of people watching it according to new ratings reports.
Andor may be one of the best Star Wars shows out there, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at the ratings. According to Nielsen (per Business Insider), the three-episode premiere of Andor didn’t get as many viewers as the other Star Wars shows on Disney+. Not only that, but Parrot Analytics indicates that global demand for the show is also less than the other series.
Andor follows Cassian Andor before he becomes the hero of the Rebellion we meet in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The show has a lot of intrigues and shows us the early years of how the Rebellion was formed. Unfortunately, that hook doesn’t seem enough to draw in as many Star Wars fans.
Right away, name recognition is likely playing a big factor in Andor falling behind the other Star Wars shows in ratings. With Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Book of Boba Fett, you have two beloved characters who both appeared in the mainline films. While The Mandalorian doesn’t have the same level of name recognition, it was the first big live-action Star Wars show to premiere on Disney+ and it had Baby Yoda.
Fortunately for fans of Andor, it doesn’t have to be the most popular Star Wars show to be successful. It is still a Star Wars show, after all, so it managed to bring in 624 million minutes of viewing in the US from Wednesday, September 21 through Sunday, September 18. Still, when you compare that to something like Obi-Wan Kenobi‘s 1.026 billion minutes for its first two episodes, it does seem a little sad.
Where Andor really shines is in the ratings, where it beats out almost every Star Wars show except for The Mandalorian (which has similar ratings). Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Book of Boba Fett were fairly divisive among fans, with some considering The Book of Boba Fett straight-up bad. Andor has no such problems, as it currently sits at a 95% critic score and 83% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Andor viewers don’t really have anything to worry about though, since the show has a definitive ending that leads up to the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The series was renewed for a second season and begins filming soon, so fans don’t have to worry about an early cancellation that doesn’t give them the full story. The worst thing that could happen at this point is that Disney decides to take fewer risks on characters that aren’t as well known to fans.
If you want to help give Andor the audience that a high-quality Star Wars show deserves, there’s still plenty of time. The series just released its seventh episode on Disney+ on October 19 with another episode coming on October 26. The first season is set to have a total of 12 episodes that will continue to air through November 23.
Andor is created by Oscar-nominated writer and director Tony Gilroy. The series stars Diego Luna, Kyle Soller, Adria Arjona, Joplin Sibtain, James McArdle, Rupert Vansittart, Stellan Skarsgård, Fiona Shaw, Alex Ferns, Gary Beadle, Genevieve O’Reilly, and more. All available episodes are now streaming on Disney+.
